Nunavut refuses Cambridge Bay SAR request

“It wasn’t a search and rescue”

By JANE GEORGE

The rugged land beyond Mount Pelly is where a 33-year-old man got lost earlier this month. Search and rescue teams from Cambridge Bay found him, but only thanks to the efforts of the community, volunteer searchers say.


The rugged land beyond Mount Pelly is where a 33-year-old man got lost earlier this month. Search and rescue teams from Cambridge Bay found him, but only thanks to the efforts of the community, volunteer searchers say.

Cambridge Bay residents who recently volunteered in a search and rescue for a 33-year-old man say they’re angry that the Government of Nunavut didn’t step up to assist.

On July 6, a man left on an all-terrain vehicle to go hunting outside Cambridge Bay.

But he became disoriented and lost. He finally ended up stuck in mud on his vehicle.

Although the man had a satellite phone, he had no idea where he was, volunteers later told Nunatsiaq News.

And he was nowhere near the place he thought he was.

Co-ordinates retrieved from his satellite phone, received following an official request from the RCMP to the phone company, weren’t compatible with the GPS system used by the first search and rescue team. So they were off in their search by at least 50 kilometres.

Searchers travelled on the land for 19 hours, with no success.

A second search team, armed with better co-ordinates, reached the lost man in 10 hours.

That’s only because a helicopter from the North Warning System radar station in Cambridge Bay on the way to a site visit was able to spot the man. The helicopter pilot landed and gave the man food and water.

The crew were also able to provide searchers with the man’s exact co-ordinates.

Throughout the three-day search and rescue, hamlet officials repeatedly requested aircraft assistance from the GN’s emergency measures office.

Ed Zebedee director of the GN’s protection services branch, said their request didn’t meet the criteria for an official search and rescue because he said “it wasn’t a search and rescue.”

His office has approved 98 searches so far this year — but this man wasn’t untraceable, because he had a satellite phone.

“The individual in question had an ATV stuck, phoned his wife, and he called search and rescue.”

The coordinates from his satellite phone should have allowed people from Cambridge Bay to know where he was, Zebedee said — that is, if they had converted the systems from the satellite phone to their GPS units properly.

The GN’s emergency measures office often gets calls for help that aren’t justified, Zebedee said — such as requests to help fix flat tires on ATVs.

In this case, he said the man “was stuck and wanted to go home.”

In some similar circumstances, the EMO may respond, Zebedee said, such when a hunters runs of gas and is short of food during the winter.

If the EMO didn’t respond quickly, that kind of situation could lead to a loss of life, he said.

During the recent incident in Cambridge Bay, the man was not in danger and the community had resources in place that “were very good,” he said.

“Our primary concern is the safety of the individual,” Zebedee said — and the GN can’t be responsible for people if they don’t plan their trips correctly.

However, some involved in the recent Cambridge Bay search say the GN has let their community down on several occasions, refusing, for example, to assist in the search for Julian Tologanak, who jumped out of an airplane south of Cambridge Bay two years ago.

The volunteers say finding the man who triggered the recent search was challenging due to the terrain — huge cracked boulders — and the lack of precision of the adjusted co-ordinates, which were still 10 km off.

Without the assistance of the helicopter from Nasittuq, which runs the Cam Main radar site, they say they never would have found the man, who was increasingly panicky because his satellite phone battery was nearly dead.

The man was finally found about 70 km from Cambridge Bay, 20 km east of Ferguson Lake, in an area beyond Mount Pelly that’s difficult to reach due to the recent washout of the road that leads to the territorial park there.

Many of the searchers suffered damage to their own ATV’s.

But repairs will not be reimbursed because the GN did not issue what’s called a “task number” for the search. That’s number that a hamlet can submit to the department of Community and Government and Services to reclaim such losses as well as gasoline.

Volunteers still went out, without worrying about the expense, said Sgt. Charlie Gauthier of the RCMP detachment, who personally assisted in the search.

“This community is the best organized in terms of search and rescue. We get no assistance, just the people of Cambridge Bay helping each other.”

To avoid the need for rescue operations, Zebedee recommends that hunters travel with Spot message units.

When hunters get into trouble, they can press a button on one of devices, which then sends a message saying if they need help or if they’re okay.

Spot messengers can also send an SOS message or customized message, and allow contacts to track a user’s location.

Messages sent from Spot locations go to three emergency services officials with Blackberries in Iqaluit.

The messages received on the Blackberries, which combine cell phone and internet technology, then allow officials to contact search and rescue parties to let them know exactly where a message is coming from and what it says.

Each community received 20 of the units, with 15 available for members of the community to borrow when they go out on the land.

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